June 28,1883. p JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
551 
POULTRY AND PIGEON CHRONICLE. 
CORN-SAVING- BY MACHINERY. 
(Continued from page 52S.) 
It must not be supposed that corn can be saved like hay 
because a little extra heating is not a matter of so much import¬ 
ance in hay, whereas extra heating of a corn stack is injurious. 
If it is heated entirely by the straw being green and unripe 
the heat may destroy the germinating power of the grain; 
yet the straw would be in many cases valuable as sweet and 
wholesome fodder with a not disagreeable odour ; but if heated 
by water in the sheaves the grain may not only be quite useless 
for seed and not good for either malting or mealing purposes, but 
the straw would be valueless for foddering cattle, and only fit for 
littering the yards, stables, or cattle boxes. Leaving out of sight 
the chemical changes which result from heating corn and the 
damage done to grain required for consumption by man or beast, 
it is sufficiently evident that the germinating power of corn in a 
moist condition may very easily be destroyed by a comparatively 
small rise of temperature. In the case of Barley, any injury to 
the grain greatly diminishes the marketable value ; and a sample 
which would have beeD,if well saved, of first-class malting quality, 
may have been lowered to the rank of grinding and mealing 
Barley by a little haste on the part of the farmer in stacking it, 
in consequence of heating in the stack. 
It is of great importance for us to consider the temperature to 
which corn in the stack might safely be exposed, and upon this 
question the following communication, made to the Judges at the 
Reading meeting, from Mr. Carruthers, the consulting botanist to 
Royal Agricultural Society, is of the utmost importance, and of 
very great interest at the present time in connection with our 
subject of corn-saving. He states, “ The temperature which 
grains of Wheat can endure without being killed has been made 
the subject of investigation by Sachs. He found that air-dry 
seeds of Wheat heated to 149° Fahr. for an hour so far retained 
their vitality that in one experiment 25 per cent, germinated, and 
in another 98 per cent. But tissues that contain water are more 
speedily injured by heat than those that are dry, so that seeds of 
Wheat which had been soaked in water were killed at a tempe¬ 
rature of 127° Fahr. Seeds exposed to water vapour would be 
destroyed at the lower temperature, and also seeds not fully ripe. 
The injuiy caused by heat is due to the coagulation of the nitro¬ 
genous compounds stored up in the embryo and in the cells con¬ 
taining the starch. These compounds, when the seed begins to 
germinate, supply the protoplasm, or active living portions of the 
cells, to the young plants. The life of the nitrogenous compounds 
is destroyed by coagulation, and though the constituents of the 
seed may appear on the most careful investigation to be present, 
this change would entirely destroy the germination. It would be 
dangerous to raise the temperature of corn stacks to 127° Fahr., 
for though the coagulation of the nitrogenous compounds may not 
take place below that point, a considerably lower temperature has 
an influence on the seed, for the seeds of Wheat will not germinate 
if the temperature is raised to 104° Fahr. In the view of these 
facts it appears to me that no injury should result to a corn stack 
if the temperature is never allowed to exceed 100 Fahr.” 
In any attempt to save corn in the stack by exhaustion of heat 
it is necessary to be far more particular in obtaining accurate ob¬ 
servations of the heat than in hay-saving, and it is recommended 
that only the best kind of self-registering thermometer should be 
used for the purpose. The one sold by Messrs. Negretti & Zambra, 
called the self-registering maximum thermometer, is recommended 
and is described as consisting of a tube of mercury with the de¬ 
grees engraved upon it. Above the mercury the tube is free from 
air, and just above the bulb is inserted a small piece of glass, 
which acts as a valve. When the mercury has once passed through 
the valve and has risen in the tube the upper end of the column 
registers the maximum temperature. To remove this mercury to 
the bulb it is necessary to swing the thermometer bulb end down¬ 
wards, when the column of mercury in the tube will unite with 
that in the bulb. The thermometer is enclosed in a sheath of 
glass, so as to protect the division, and the whole is secured into 
a brass jacket having a slit the whole length of the range of de¬ 
grees. This jacket is perforated at the bulb, so that the air may 
have free access to the mercury. These thermometers are found 
to answer their purpose, but are rather fragile, and in the hands 
of a labourer who has no great nicety of touch they soon come to 
grief without extreme care and caution. 
In considering the detail and nicety required in ascertaining 
the heat in a rick we scarcely think, from the point of view of the 
practical farmer that the matter is yet decided as to the temperature 
which corn will bear without injury. We have always found in 
offering samples of corn for sale that both millers and maltsters 
are very discriminating, and object to the slightest smell which 
has tainted the grain, whether by heat or mould. In consequence 
it will prove very difficult to make sure of a perfect sample if 
judged by the thermometer only. The lesson taught by the heat¬ 
ing of ricks of sheafed corn at the Reading trials induces us to 
ask why the corn was not put into the rick loose instead of in 
sheaves ; for we say, as the result of our long experience, that it 
could not possibly have been saved by any exhaustion-of-heat 
process yet discovered when stacked with thistles and weeds tied 
up with the sheaves. Still we do hope that in the future, in case 
of Clover, as it is often found in the Barley crop, the corn being 
carted loose and partially dried in the field, may be saved fre¬ 
quently by the exhaustion of heat, and thus preserve not only the 
colour and quality of the Barley when stacked without being wet 
or damp, but the fodder also, including both straw and Clover. 
To show how desirable it is to ascertain how this can be done we 
have only to recollect that when there are Clover or weeds in the 
Barley the sample of Barley is always greatly injured as malting 
grain after taking a day or two of rainy weather in swathe. Oats 
in the same way, when they contain Clover, should not be 
tied if it is wished to stack them early and reduce heat by ma¬ 
chinery, especially if the straw is green and the Oats of a white 
variety. In fact, when the sheaves of any kind of corn get wet 
in the centre whilst in the field it takes often a long time before 
they can be stacked safely without producing a white mould and 
fusty smell, whether the stack is treated with the exhaust fan or 
not. The only way that a crop of late Oats can be well saved 
when required for consumption on the home farm at a very late 
period and in the western and late districts of the kingdom, is by 
storing them as ensilage daily as fast as the crop is cut and tied, 
the Oat sheaves and Clover being reduced to chaff and managed 
upon the plan as stated by Mr. C. A. Kemble, and fully described 
by us in this Journal in the number dated the 5th of April, 1883, 
under the heading of •‘Ensilage.” 
In constructing a rick of corn to be operated on, if required for 
the exhausting of heat, the stack ought to be built in a circular 
form and not exceed 20 feet in diameter, the corn being in a 
loose state, for we doubt very much if the attempt to draw a sack 
stuffed with straw up the centre of a stack composed of sheaves 
whether it would stand, as we have sometimes seen a stack fall 
apart whilst building if the centre had not been properly con¬ 
structed ; at all events, if the sheaves were unripe in the straw, 
or contained water in the centre, either with or without Clover 
and weeds, no exhaust fan could reduce the heat so as to secure 
both grain and fodder in perfect condition. These last remark- 
are intended to apply chiefly to stacks when built in the field 
where the grain is grown and which we approve, because it is the 
best economy, the cartage being most easy. In some districts 
the covering of corn ricks is of much importance, for thatching 
is costly both in labour and straw, and the question of using 
galvanised corrugated iron for the purpose may well be con¬ 
sidered. On small farms, or where several homesteads are avail- 
le, the Dutch-barn principle becomes important, because there 
is an advantage in being able to discontinue carting and storing 
at short notice in case of heavy storms occurring as compared with 
the ordinary mode of making stacks in the field. We must, how¬ 
ever, conclude with the notice of a building we have seen illus¬ 
trated as invented by Thomas Pearson & Co., Midland Iron Works, 
Wolverhampton, being a double or treble range of silos, which 
which when filled with ensilage, with a Dutch-barn iron roofing 
over, affording a secure space for stacking any kind of grain. 
WORK OK THE HOME FARM. 
Ilorse Labour .—This is still employed alternately with hay-carting 
and tillage work connected with the Turnip land and preparation for 
the late sowings. The earliest Swedes are showing the second leaf, 
and are being horse-hoed, as are also the Mangold and Carrot crops, 
some of which have been singled, and should now be horse-hoed the 
second time, also immediately hand-hoed, so as to get as much hoeing 
done as possible, but especially singling, before the harvest com¬ 
mences, as this work being so much more costly when effected during 
the harvest period. In the southern and eastern districts of the 
kingdom tillage is still continued for the common Turnip, and alter¬ 
nately with work on the fallows for Wheat. Our practice in the 
latter instance is to ylean the land of couch without very much 
